Lawsuit Launched Against City of Laguna Beach

For the past two years, Preserve Orange County joined residents of Laguna Beach to defend the city's long established historic preservation program and endorse badly needed reform of the planning process associated with it. Issuing public comments and adding our voice at public hearings did not change the course taken by the City Council in July and August 2020. Reducing the preservation program to an owner-driven, voluntary program without first conducting a full environmental review of the possible impacts on historic resources was an overreach of the City Council and we believe, a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“Bowing to property-owners' demands to alter or replace historic buildings with those of ever-greater mass and scale, the city has decreed owner consent as the prerequisite to identifying and protecting local historic resources. Such consent is irrelevant to historic merit, and now hundreds of city-identified historic resources rich with California character will be newly at risk of substantial alteration or demolition.” From the CEQA petition, January 11, 2021

The beloved beach village is facing imminent transformation of its historic built environment making litigation a necessary next step. Along with the Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition and Village Laguna, Preserve Orange County petitioned the Orange County Superior Court on January 11, 2021. For more detail about the petition and the history of the issue, please go to our Most Endangered page by clicking here.